Stroke thrombectomy in the elderly: A propensity score matched study on a nationwide real-world registry.

Introduction: Data on safety and efficacy of endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) for acute ischemic stroke in older patients are limited and controversial, and people aged 80 or older were under-represented in randomized trials. Our aim was to assess EVT effect for ischemic stroke patients aged ⩾80 at a nationwide level.

Patients And Methods: The cohort included stroke patients undergoing EVT from the Italian Registry of Endovascular Treatment in Acute Stroke (IRETAS).

Thrombectomy in ischemic stroke patients with tandem occlusion in the posterior versus anterior circulation.

Background: Mechanical thrombectomy (MT) was found to be beneficial in acute ischemic stroke patients with anterior tandem occlusion (a-TO). Instead, little is known about the effectiveness of MT in stroke patients with posterior tandem occlusion (p-TO). We aimed to compare MT within 24 h from last known well time in ischemic stroke patients with p-TO versus a-TO.

Predictors of Good Functional Outcome in Patients with Tandem Occlusion After Revascularization Treatment: Single-Center Experience with 12-Month Follow-Up.

Objective: The optimal management and procedural strategy for tandem occlusion (TO) in acute ischemic stroke are still unclear, as is the long-term outcome of these patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate predictors of good functional outcome in patients with TO through the analysis of demographics, clinical, and radiological data with a 1-year follow-up.

Methods: We collected data on 100 patients with TO who underwent revascularization treatments in our comprehensive stroke center.

Characteristics and outcomes of cerebral venous thrombosis associated with COVID-19.

Introduction: Previous reports and meta-analyses derived from small case series reported a mortality rate of up to 40% in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 associated cerebral venous thrombosis (COVID-CVT). We assessed the clinical characteristics and outcomes in an international cohort of patients with COVID-CVT.

Patients And Methods: This was a registry study of consecutive COVID-CVT patients diagnosed between March 2020 and March 2023.

The Telltale Botox: Botulinum Toxin Injection by an Expert Hand as an Intracranial Aneurysm Detector.

Complications in aesthetic medicine can be considered a consequence of the inexperience of the performing physician, but in some cases, they can unveil far more serious conditions, hitherto silent. We present a case of a 48-year-old patient who, following botulinum toxin type A (Botox) injection for treatment of forehead wrinkles, returned to our attention 12 days later for a discrete, newly onset right eyelid ptosis. This ptosis was a telltale sign of the presence of an intracranial aneurysm closely related with the oculomotor nerve.

Factors associated with hemorrhagic transformation after endovascular treatment despite early recanalization.

Purpose: To identify new factors associated with hemorrhagic transformation (HT) despite early recanalization in patients with acute ischemic stroke treated with mechanical thrombectomy.

Methods: We retrospectively included patients with known onset of large vessel occlusion treated with mechanical thrombectomy +/- intravenous thrombolysis. Non-contrast CT was performed at 24 +/- 12 h from endovascular procedure.

Prevalence, clinical features, and radiological pattern of artery of Percheron infarction: a challenging diagnosis.

Purpose: Occlusion of artery of Percheron (AOP), a rare variant of paramedian branches of posterior cerebral artery, results in a characteristic pattern of ischemic lesions in bilateral paramedian thalami with or without midbrain and anterior thalami involvement.

Aim: To evaluate the prevalence, the clinical, and the imaging features of AOP infarction in a single comprehensive stroke center experience.

Methods: We retrospectively search in our stroke center database, patients with ischemic lesions in the AOP distribution.

Sleep and sleep-modifying factors in chronic migraine patients during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Aims: The objective of the present study was to evaluate sleep features and sleep-modifying factors in patients with chronic migraine (CM) during the first Italian COVID-19 lockdown.

Material And Methods: The study was based on an e-mail survey addressed to CM patients of our headache center. The survey investigated demographic, life-style, sleep, psychological, and migraine features during the first COVID-19 lockdown period and the month before.

Non-conducted premature atrial complexes: A new independent predictor of atrial fibrillation in cryptogenic stroke.

Introduction: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the main cardiac cause of stroke, but it frequently remains undetected. In patients with cryptogenic stroke an Holter electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring for AF is recommended.

Objective: To evaluate the prognostic role of Non-Conducted Premature Atrial Complexes (ncPACs) recorded on Holter ECG.

Carotid free-floating thrombus during COVID-19 vaccine era: causality or not?

Carotid free-floating thrombus (FFT) is very rarely diagnosed in patients with acute ischemic stroke. It is a real clinical emergency due to the significant risk of death associated with thromboembolic complications. Herein, we present three patients with ischemic stroke caused by carotid FFT after less than 20 days from administration of mRNA vaccine BNT162b1 (Pfizer/BioNTech) for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-CoronaVirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

Moyamoya Vasculopathy: Cause, Clinical Manifestations, Neuroradiologic Features, and Surgical Management.

In moyamoya disease, the progressive occlusion of the distal portion of the internal carotid artery and its major branches is typically responsible for the formation of an extensive network of collateral vessels at the base of the brain. When moyamoya collateral network develops in association with various systemic or acquired diseases, the term moyamoya syndrome is used to denote this phenomenon. Sudden changes in the supraclinoid internal carotid artery and middle cerebral artery can be recognized with noninvasive neurovascular imaging techniques, which also allow a differential diagnosis with similar diseases such as degenerative steno-occlusive disease, cerebral vasculitis, and twig-like middle cerebral artery.

Ischemic stroke and reperfusion therapies in diabetic patients.

Introduction: The study aimed to identify the main prognostic factors in diabetic patients with ischemic stroke undergoing reperfusion therapies (RT).

Methods: This retrospective study included 170 diabetic patients: 62 treated with intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) alone and 108 with mechanical thrombectomy (MT). Among MT patients, 29 underwent IVT.

Repeated reperfusion treatment in recurrent ischemic stroke: A retrospective single-center case series.

Data regarding repeated reperfusion therapy (rRT) in acute ischemic stroke (AIS), including intravenous thrombolysis and endovascular treatment (EVT), are quite poor. To date, there are only few case reports and five larger studies on repeated EVT. We aimed to report our single-center experience and describe different clinical scenarios of recurrent AIS with emergent large vessel occlusion (LVO), for which the decision-making process could be challenging in the emergency setting.

Ischemic Stroke and Asymptomatic Pulmonary Opacities.

Purpose: Pulmonary opacities are described in many chest radiograph reports in stroke patients and are often asymptomatic. The aim of this study is to investigate the clinical features associated with asymptomatic pulmonary opacities (APO) and evaluate APO prognostic value in ischemic stroke.

Methods: We prospectively analyzed patients with acute ischemic stroke without pneumonia symptoms referred to our stroke center.

Vascular pattern and radiological follow up in a case of pontine warning syndrome.

Pontine warning syndrome (PWS) is a condition characterized by crescendo transient ischemic attacks due to pontine ischemia. The reported case described a 72-year-old woman who presented repetitive sudden episodes of double vision, impaired balance, slurred speech and right-sided weakness. Neurological deficits lasted a few minutes-hours and disappeared during the first seven days after onset.

Variants of the circle of Willis in ischemic stroke patients.

Purpose: We aim to provide prevalence and pattern of anatomical variants of circle of Willis in over one thousand ischemic stroke patients compared to an age- and sex-matched control group, and to determine their role in the severity and in-hospital prognosis.

Methods: Two groups of neuroradiologists evaluated all vascular images of ischemic stroke patients and controls to identify anatomical variants using a preexisted classification. We collected data concerning patient characteristics, stroke severity on admission and discharge, in-hospital mortality, hemorrhagic transformation, acute treatment performed, and etiology.

Minor stroke with bilateral acute infarctions and combined vascular anomalies: A complex case report.

We report the case of a patient with bilateral acute ischemic lesions (AIS) in middle cerebral artery (MCA) territory associated with an extremely rare combination of anomalies of the aortic arch and the left internal carotid artery (ICA). The diagnosis deposed for bilateral minor embolic stroke of undetermined source (ESUS), inpatient with patent foramen ovale (PFO) and positive antiphospholipid (aPL) test. To our knowledge, this is the first description of a patient with this rare combination of vascular anomalies.

Isolated Insular Stroke: Clinical Presentation.

The symptoms related to insular ischemia have been the object of several studies in patients affected by stroke, although they are often accompanied by other ischemic alteration of adjacent brain structures supplied by the middle cerebral artery (MCA). The insula is vulnerable because of an ischemia due to thromboembolic vascular occlusion of the M1 MCA segment and the 2 main MCA branches (M2), mainly when they abruptly arise from the principal stem at a right angle. This topographical and anatomical peculiarity could enable an embolic formation, especially due to atrial fibrillation (AF), to occlude the transition pathway between M1 and M2, while the proximal origin of vascular supply protects the insula from ischemia due to hemodynamic factors.

Recurrent intracranial hemorrhage and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis: an atypical case of Neuro-Behçet's Syndrome.

We report the case of a 22-year-old man with an history of headaches, seizures, cognitive impairment associated with recurrent intracranial hemorrhage (ICH), acute ischemic stroke (AIS), worsened over the last eighteen months for a new onset of uveitis and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST). After excluding common causes of lobar ICH, and some rare ones according to the diagnostic protocol proposed by Beuker et al, in the suspicion of Primary Angiitis of the Central Nervous System (PACNS), the gradual development of a low-grade fever, a cutaneous rash, and a papulopustular manifestation on lower back after rachicentesis (pathergy phenomenon), allowed us to make a diagnosis of Neuro-Behçet's Syndrome (NBS) without oral/genital aphthous ulcerations, according to the International Study Group for Behçet's Disease classification criteria for BD (ICBD).

Hemiballism: Unusual clinical manifestation in three patients with frontoparietal infarct.

The term hemiballism-hemichorea refers to a movement disorder characterized by involuntary movements, often violent, described as uncontrollable jerking, flinging, flailing or kicking, involving proximal muscles of a limb and it is often associated with lesions in the subthalamic nucleus. In this report, we described three cases of hemiballism-hemichorea as the first manifestation of acute ischemic stroke with lesion in the frontoparietal region on brain MRI and no involvement of the subthalamic nucleus. One patient was treated with thrombolysis and recovered within one hour.

Acute Stroke Treatment in Patients with Basilar Artery Occlusion: A Single-Center Observational Study.

Background: Acute ischemic stroke (AIS) due to basilar artery occlusion (BAO) represents 1-4% of all ischemic strokes. BAO results in strokes associated with a high risk of a poor functional outcome and, in 86-95% of the untreated cases, it results in death because of the vital cerebral structures involved. Diagnosis can be delayed because of the variability in presenting symptoms, and acute treatment is often attempted even beyond 6 h from symptoms onset because of the high risk of a fatal prognosis.

Combined intravenous and endovascular treatment versus primary mechanical thrombectomy. The Italian Registry of Endovascular Treatment in Acute Stroke.

Background: Whether mechanical thrombectomy alone may achieve better or at least equal clinical outcome than mechanical thrombectomy combined with intravenous thrombolysis is a matter of debate.

Methods: From the Italian Registry of Endovascular Stroke Treatment, we extracted all cases treated with intravenous thrombolysis followed by mechanical thrombectomy or with primary mechanical thrombectomy for anterior circulation stroke due to proximal vessel occlusion. We included only patients who would have qualified for intravenous thrombolysis.